Spencer Matthews has won Channel 4’s The Jump 2017.
In tonight’s live grand final Spencer Matthews ski jumped to victory to be crowned The Jump Champion 2017 taking home the coveted Cowbell Trophy.
Over the last five weeks the competitors had honed their skiing skills and mastered the Ski Jump. The seven remaining competitors had to draw on everything they’ve learnt as went head to head in Snow Cross and Ski Cross races before heading to the top of the Ski Jump.
The first challenge of the night was the Snow Cross. All seven competitors went head to head down the course, the first four across the finish line were through to the Ski Cross with the bottom three heading straight to the jump. The shortest jumper of those three faced immediate elimination so it was all to race for.
This second Snow Cross competition of the series was the toughest battle that the competitors had faced yet. New jumps and twists in the course as well as seven people on the track meant anything could happen.
From the off, no one could catch Louis who was first across the finish line, followed by Jason, Spencer and Lydia which sent Kadeena, Amy and Emma straight where they did not want to be… the top of the Ski Jump.
At the top of the Ski Jump the three women had it all to jump for. Amy was up first, she’d been jumping really well in training and it showed with a jump of 16.08m. Emma was next, she needed to unleash ‘The Beast’ if she was going to keep her place in the competition, with a jump of 14.10m it wasn’t quite enough to beat Amy but there was still one jumper to go. Kadeena was third to jump, she needed to beat Emma’s personal best but after four falls in training she looked nervous. However, she landed a very strong 15.38m knocking Emma out of the running to be crowned champion.
Next the six finalists faced The Ultimate Ski Cross course. In race one Lydia, Jason and Louis prepared to fight to stay in the competition. For Lydia it was a tough race, she took Jason out at the start giving Louis an open course to cruise down. Lydia couldn’t get her skis back on and her loss eliminated her from The Jump 2017.
Up next to race were Kadeena, Amy and Spencer. It was a close start between Spencer and Kadeena until the Chelsea boy managed to pull away. Amy and Kadeena battled it out to the end when Amy managed to cut in front of Kadeena knocking her out of the competition.
Louis, Jason, Spencer and Amy were all in with a chance to take home the Cowbell Trophy, it all came down to one ski jump each, the biggest jump would win. The fight was on.
Jason jumped first for the win, with a leap of 16.35m it was a high bar for the other three to beat. Louis jumped next managing to set the bar even higher with a jump of 18.05m. This knocked Jason out of the competition. Amy was the last woman standing and was also in with a chance of being the first woman to win The Jump. But it wasn’t meant to be, her nerves got the better of her and she fell on landing and was clearly disappointed as she got up.
Finally it was the turn of Spencer to jump, he’d wanted to beat Louis for weeks and it all came down to this one jump. Spencer gave it all he could and it was more than enough as he landed 18.98m winning The Jump 2017 and setting a new Jump record.